UN KOREAN COMFORT WOMEN

STORY: UN / KOREAN COMFORT WOMEN
TRT: 01:02
SOURCE: UNIFEED-UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: NATS

DATELINE: 11 MARCH 2016, NEW YORK CITY

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide shot, UN headquarters
2. Various shots, Ban meeting with Korean comfort woman

STORYLINE:

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met today (11 Mar) with an organisation that represents the comfort women, including for the first time, one of the survivors.

Gil Won-ok, was one of the victims drafted by Japan as a so-called “comfort women” during the Second World War. This meeting was requested and arranged by Ms. Yoon Mee-Hyang, Co-Chair and Representative for the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan.

After the meeting, Ban said that he shared his sympathy with Ms. Gil Won-ok about the “suffering and pain that she and other victims have experienced’ and that it was “crucial that the voices of victims and survivors are heard.”

He also said that he thought the hoped the agreement between Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) will be “faithfully implemented under the guidance of human rights principles.”He called on the parties to “continue the dialogue towards a comprehensive resolution of this issue in line with human rights principles, with the victims at the centre.”

Last December, a landmark agreement between Japan and the ROK was reached on the issues related to “comfort women, an issue that has strained ties between the two countries.

The agreement reached by the two sides reportedly involves an official apology from Japan and a promised payment of $8.3 million for the victims.